A blood clot forming in the carotid artery. Having a stroke damages immune cells as well as affecting the brain, research has found. The findings help explain why patients have a greater risk of catching life-threatening infections, such as pneumonia, after having a stroke. Therapies that boost survival of the affected immune cells or compensate...
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Experts excited by brain ‘wonder-drug’
Image caption There is no drug that slows the pace of dementia Scientists hope they have found a drug to stop all neurodegenerative brain diseases, including dementia. In 2013, a UK Medical Research Council team stopped brain cells dying in an animal for the first time, creating headline news around the world. But the compound used...
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Pioneering research into benefit of computer games to treat Parkinson’s Disease
Left- right are: Dr Aaron Pritchard, (BCUHB – Research & Development), Dr Rudi Coetzer – Bangor/BCUHB Joint Appointment and Prof Charles Leek. North Wales neuroscientists are researching the potential benefits of brain stimulating computer games in the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease. The study is being led by researchers at Bangor University’s School of Psychology...
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Link discovered between immune system, brain structure and memory
The thickness of the cerebral cortex is correlated with the epigenetic profile of immune-related genes. In two independent studies, scientists at the University of Basel have demonstrated that both the structure of the brain and several memory functions are linked to immune system genes. The scientific journals Nature Communications and Nature Human Behaviour have published the results of...
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Sympathetic nervous system key to thermogenesis, new study suggests
Brain scan A new study from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai provides important insights into how the body regulates its production of heat, a process known as thermogenesis that is currently intensely studied as a target of diabetes and obesity treatment in humans. While researchers had previously hypothesized that macrophages, a class...
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Low levels of ‘memory protein’ linked to cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease
Diagram of the brain of a person with Alzheimer’s Disease. Working with human brain tissue samples and genetically engineered mice, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers together with colleagues at the National Institutes of Health, the University of California San Diego Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Columbia University, and the Institute for Basic Research in Staten...
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Power Grid Protection of the Muscle Mitochondrial Reticulum
Mitochondrial network connectivity enables rapid communication and distribution of potential energy throughout the cell. However, this connectivity puts the energy conversion system at risk, because damaged elements could jeopardize the entire network. Here, we demonstrate the mechanisms for mitochondrial network protection in heart and skeletal muscle (SKM). We find that the cardiac mitochondrial reticulum is segmented...
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Scientists Discover New Types Of Blood Cells In Human Immune System
Researchers have discovered new cell subtypes in the human immune system. The newly-discovered cells — dubbed monocytes and dendritic — fall under the white blood cell class. Thus, technically scientists have found new blood cells in the human body. Human blood contains many types of cells, including components of our immune system. Primarily, there are three types...
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Study overturns seminal research about the developing nervous system
Left: axons (green, pink, blue) form organized patterns in the normal developing mouse spinal cord. Right: removing netrin1 results in highly disorganized axon growth. New research by scientists at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA overturns a long-standing paradigm about how axons—thread-like projections that connect...
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Cell biologists discover crucial ‘traffic regulator’ in neurons
This is a scanning electron micrograph (false color) of a human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neuron. Cell biologists from Utrecht University have discovered the protein that may be the crucial traffic regulator for the transport of vital molecules inside nerve cells. When this traffic regulator is removed, the flow of traffic comes to a...